Top Items:
The Official Google Blog:
Google Chrome (BETA) — Since we first released Google Chrome, the development team has been hard at work improving the stability and overall performance of the browser. In just 100 days, we have reached more than 10 million active users around the world (on all seven continents, no less) and released 14 updates to the product.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Computerworld, Download Squad, Bits, jkOnTheRun, Google Operating System, PC World, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, blogs.ft.com, BetaNews, InformationWeek, MediaFile, Chromium Blog, Between the Lines, L.A. Times Tech Blog, AppScout, SitePoint, eWeek, Google Blogoscoped, Lifehacker, TechSpot, Mashable!, Pulse2 and Clickety Clack
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Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Google releases Chrome 1.0 — Update: Google has announced that Chrome is no longer a beta. Chrome 1.0 is now available for download for Windows; Google says it is working on support for Mac OS X and Linux. — When Google first began to expand beyond search, the company pioneered …
Discussion:
eWeek, The Register, Microsoft Watch, Epicenter, Electronista, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, Mark Evans and Geek.com
Slash Lane / AppleInsider:
Apple working on 3D Mac OS X user interface (images) — A series of Apple patent filings published this week reveal the Mac maker has spent a considerable amount of time outlining a new multi-dimensional interface for Mac OS X that would make better use of screen real estate by increasing …
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Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Exploring 3D Desktop and Application Interfaces — Dozens of Apple patent applications were published today revealing research that Apple had done in 2007 on many topics encompassing future versions of Mac OS X. The most intriguing is a series of patent applications which describe a “Multidimensional” user interface.
Discussion:
The Register, Crave, AppScout, Engadget, Obsessable, MacBlogz, SlashGear, StartupNorth, TUAW, Appletell, 9 to 5 Mac and Gizmodo
JG Mason / Gadgetell:
Breaking: Apple left out? AT&T brings back iPhone online and at-home activation — Yes! AT&T is now offering the iPhone online with home activation. I found this by looking for info on another phone, but found this advert when landing on their site. At first, I figured I was reading it wrong …
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Kelly Hodgkins / Boy Genius Report:
AT&T now offers iPhone 3G home activation, for real this time — All you potential iPhone 3G buyers who loathe the thought of having to go into an AT&T store to activate your newly purchased phone can rejoice today as AT&T has finally enabled home activation for the iPhone 3G.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Engadget, AppleInsider, Negative Approach, Computerworld, Edible Apple, The iPhone Blog, Technologizer, TheAppleBlog, Gizmodo, MobileBurn.com and PalmAddicts
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
iPhone Copy and Paste Now Working Between Safari and Mail — Finally, someone has conceived a way to copy and paste text from Safari to Mail, and between web pages. And this time, it doesn't require any software installation and it's legal: … In fact, it doesn't require anything to be installed …
Josh Babetski / MapQuest Blog:
MapQuest Local Gets More Social with Twitter; Adds Jobs — Twitter — When our team set out to build MapQuest Local, we wanted it to be very different than the “local experience” found historically online. One of our early objectives was to make MapQuest Local more social - connect people and ideas in a local area together.
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Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Now Flickr is hit by Yahoo layoffs — Thought the Yahoo layoffs were over? Not quite... today it seems that George Oates, a high-profile member of the Flickr team and one of the site's early employees, was told that she was being given the chop too. She's recently been in Australia …
Discussion:
CNET News
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money — Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living. — One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos …
Alex Pham / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Santa visits Nintendo early: Wii sales more than doubled in November — Nintendo sold more than 2 million Wii game consoles in the U.S. last month, more than double the number it sold in November 2007, according to Reggie Fils-Aime, president of the Japanese company's North American division.
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Did Accel Just Raise Money For A Facebook Bailout? — VC firm Accel Partners just closed two funds worth more than $1 billion. — $525 million will go toward a London-based fund for European startups. — The rest — about $480 million — will create the Accel Growth Fund, the firm's first for late-stage companies.
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update may be around the corner — Apple this week is believed throwing the finishing touches on Mac OS X 10.5.6, the last planned maintenance and security update for Leopard during the 2008 calendar year. — Developers on Wednesday were reportedly equipped …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Layoffs At Last.FM Confirmed. Where Else Are Heads Rolling At CBS? — Today, CBS Interactive is laying off people across several of its properties, I've confirmed with the company. CBS is not saying which divisions or how many people are affected. It is positioning the layoffs as part …
Carlo Longino / Techdirt:
Hollywood: Where Up Is Down, and ‘Anywhere’ Is Actually A Small Number Of Places — from the truthful-advertising-and-other-non- sequiturs dept — The latest Batman film, The Dark Knight, released on DVD this week, and I saw a TV ad for it the other night, touting the “digital copy” …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Who Said Web 2.0 Was R.I.P.? Microblog Tumblr Raises $4.5 Million, Expectations — Tumblr is exactly the kind of start-up that's supposed to be gasping for air in today's dismal economy: A trendy but niche Web service with a prominent founder and exactly zero revenue.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, MarketWatch, TechCrunch, Contentinople, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, CenterNetworks and Twitterrati
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe — “Koobface” is the name of the Trojan worm that's been making its way through the social networking site Facebook lately, but to the site's users, it's been simply known as “the Facebook virus.” That name will soon become a misnomer …
Meraiah Foley / New York Times:
Proposed Web Filter Criticized in Australia — SYDNEY — The Australian government plans to test a nationwide Web filtering system that would force Internet service providers to block access to thousands of sites containing questionable or illegal content, prompting cries of censorship from advocacy groups.
Financial Times:
Lenovo in talks over possible acquisition — By Kathrin Hille in Beijing and Robin Kwong in Taipei — Lenovo, the world's fourth-largest personal computer maker, on Thursday said it was in talks over a possible acquisition after its shares jumped on speculation of a deal.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Windows 7 build 6956 performance test — My Hardware 2.0 mailbag is brimming with Windows 7 related questions. The main question on everyone's lips is the obvious one - How does Windows 7 stack up against Vista? … This test will pitch Windows 7 build 6956 32-bit against Windows Vista RTM 32-bit and Windows Vista SP1 32-bit.
Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:
Apologies for organizational issues at LeWeb — I will write a longer post as I do every year to recap what went well and what did not go well at LeWeb this year. Many things went well fortunately and I am still reading the huge feedback from the participants in the room and thousands of people who watched the live online stream.
Erica Sadun / Infinite Loop:
App Store Lessons: Creative uses of promotional codes — With App Store becoming more and more crowded, building attention for your application has increasingly been difficult, so it's time to get clever. Fifth Ace Productions decided to use some of its 50 free promo codes in a rather creative way …
Discussion:
NEWSFACTOR
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook adds Washington Post CEO to board of directors — Donald E. Graham, the chief executive and chairman of The Washington Post company, was an early confidant of Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Graham even passed on having his company invest in Facebook in the early days …
Sunshine / LiveSide:
Windows Live Sync Is Now Available For Windows And Mac [updated] — Windows Live Sync is now Live at http://sync.live.com. The team just announced it on their new blog: … The old FolderShare blog and newsgroup will retire, but the team is not leaving you in the cold.
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Microsoft hires an open-source identity expert — Microsoft, long the bastion of proprietary thought, is increasingly adding open-source DNA to the fold. And it's adding to its roster of open-source veterans: Dick Hardt, founder and CEO of Sxip Identity and ActiveState …
Discussion:
OStatic blogs
Lalitesh Katragadda / Google LatLong:
Map making in new worlds — We are pleased to announce the launch of Google Map Maker, mapmaker.google.com, for 43 new countries and territories, including Argentina, Costa Rica, and Fiji. Map Maker now allows people to create complete maps for 164 countries across the world.
Discussion:
WebProNews
Simon Sage / IntoMobile:
RIM Acquires Chalk Media — RIM has just gobbled up a solution developer by the name of Chalk Media, who allow enterprises to push content (video, text, images and otherwise) to their workforce's BlackBerrys, as well as receive feedback and statistics on its usage.
Tony Smith / The Register:
Netbook SSD usage to fall under 10% in 2009 — Has the solid-state drive had its day - at least as a key component of Small, Cheap Computers? That's what one Asian market watcher reckons. — This week, DRAMeXchange forecast that the percentage of notebooks shipping with SSDs …
